


End of an Era

by fuzzybooks



Series: Jaegercon Bingo [4]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzybooks/pseuds/fuzzybooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the end of the Jaeger program in sight, the k-science department has to pack-up and leave, and Newt doesn't know where to go from here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End of an Era

**Author's Note:**

> Newt and Hermann's future relationship is solely up to how you wish to interpret it.  
> Written for the Aftermath square of my JaegerCon Bingo card and the Loss of Identity square of my H/C bingo card.

 

Newt dragged his feet down the corridor. The celebration had finally died down, and the reality was starting to truly sink in. Four days ago they had been at war, they had been at the edge, there was no time to think of tomorrows, there was only here and now. 

For ten years Newt had walked the halls of various Shatterdomes, the Resident Expert in each one he went to, no one else had the patience or the will to truly study the Kaiju as he had, and now they had won. The Kaiju were gone, the breach was sealed, at such a price. There would be funerals to go to, (Newt hated funerals), and memorials built for the fallen. For the people that gave their lives to save the world, and for those who just didn’t make it away from the coast - the rangers, the engineers, the civilians, the death toll was far too high. 

And Newt? Well, there was no place for him here, not anymore. He was a relic; no one ever thanked the scientists, aside from the people that truly mattered. K-science was dead, much like the beings they studied, there was no need for a Kaiju expert, and Newt didn’t know where to go from here. He was 35 and had spent a decade of his life fighting in a war that was now over. 

He was packing up his lab, at a sedate and thoughtful pace, unusually quiet and contemplative. The problem was that he just didn’t know who he was anymore, not as a person separated from being the leading xenobiologist.

Hermann’s side of the lab was immaculate, the blackboards had been wiped clean, the books had been packed, there was nothing to show for the time they had been here. They had been given two weeks to clean up and get out, a lump sum given to pay for housing and the trip for them to get them home would be paid for by the PPDC. Newt scoffed, the PPDC had been his home for so long that he didn’t have anywhere else to go, so he had called his mother and told her he was coming to visit. She had moved back to Berlin not long before Trespasser hit the shores of San Francisco, to be with her ailing mother, and after K-day Newt told her it might be best if she stayed.

He was so lost in his thoughts and the mindless scrubbing that he didn’t hear Hermann come in, nor did he notice when he came closer until there was a hand on his shoulder. Newt jerked in surprise but stilled when he noticed his lab partner, his friend really. They had drifted, but they hadn’t talked about it, they had just settled into a somewhat quiet-for them-rhythm of packing up their lives and dancing around each other.

“Hey Herman.” He greeted. 

“Hello to you too. You seem to be taking your time cleaning up.” Hermann said nodding at the piles scattered around the tables and removed his hand from Newt’s arm; Newt felt remarkably cold without it. Newt nodded.

“Yeah, I guess I just, don’t really know what to do now, or what to be. This was my life, our life, you know?” Newt shook his head. “I just don’t know what to do without this, and without you there to bug me every day. What do regular people even do? I can’t just go back and teach and act like nothing has happened.” Newt said loudly, running a hand through his hair. Hermann took his other hand and held it between his, letting out an exasperated sigh that Newt knew all too well.

“We do what we’ve done for the past decade, Newton, we adapt and move forward. Together, preferably; we seemed to have managed well enough this far.” Newt nodded distractedly and pulled Hermann closer for a hug. It would be alright, he thought, they helped save the world – how hard could it be to start living again?


End file.
